India Independent: The Team

Ritu Menon is a feminist publisher and writer, with over 50 years’ experience in major academic and trade presses. In 1984 she cofounded Kali for Women, Asia’s first feminist press, and in 2003, she set up Women Unlimited, an associate of KFW. She is the author editor of over a dozen books. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2011; a Gold Medal by the Asiatic Society of India in 2024; and the IMPACT 2019 award by the IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Indu (Indira) Chandrasekhar is Publisher and Managing Editor of Tulika Books, New Delhi, which set up Tulika Books in 1995. Indu is a founding partner of the Independent Publishers’ Distribution Alternatives (IPDA), and a member of the Paris-based International Alliance of Independent Publishers (IAIP). She is on the editorial board of the journal Review of Agrarian Studies, and is a trustee of the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation (SSAF).

Mandira Sen is director of Bhatkal and Sen that publishes two imprints from Kolkata: Stree, Women’s Studies since 1990; and Samya, Dalit Writings and Cultural Studies since 1996. She has worked for over fifty years in academic publishing in the USA, UK and in India. She may be said to have pioneered Dalit Studies, publishing first-time authors who have become successful. She has taught in publishing courses at Jadavpur’s Edit Pub course, Calcutta

University’s course and also for the NBT.

Radhika Menon established Tulika Publishers in 1996, producing children's books in nine languages. In 2000, she launched Goodbooks, India’s first exclusive children’s bookstore, which ran successfully for five years. Alongside it, she founded the Goodbooks Trust, which worked to set up libraries and reading programmes in government schools. Radhika has served on the Sesame Street India think tank, and on the executive committees of the National Book Trust (NBT), NCERT and several non-government organisations.

Ravi Singh is publisher and co-founder of Speaking Tiger Books, one of India’s most distinctive independent publishing companies. He was also publisher and editor-in-chief with Penguin Books India, co-publisher with Aleph Book Company and features editor with Delhi Diary magazine. He has worked closely with many of the finest authors writing from or about South Asia. Ravi is on the advisory board of Majha House and Elsewhere Foundation, and Chintan Environmental and Research Group.

Sudhanva Deshpande is a publisher, author and actor. Since 1998, he has been Managing Editor at LeftWord Books, and since 2017 at Vaam Prakashan, both imprints of New Delhi-based Naya Rasta Publishers, and founder of May Day Bookstore. He has held teaching positions at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and at the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. He is the author of Halla Bol: The Death and Life of Safdar Hashmi (LeftWord 2020).

Manish Purohit is the co-founder of AuthorsUpFront, an independent publisher and publishing services set-up. He has over 30 years of experience in the world of publishing – newspapers, magazines, and books. He has set up and run publishing businesses and worked with leading brands such as The Times of India, Business Standard, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Popular Prakashan and Disney Publishing Worldwide. He also teaches media students as a visiting faculty.

Swati Daftuar is an independent editor, writer, and literary curator with over 15 years of experience in publishing and media. She is currently a Consulting Editor at Speaking Tiger Books. Previously, she was Deputy Editor for The Hindu’s Books vertical and Executive Editor at HarperCollins India, where she led the commercial fiction list and worked with some of India’s most widely read authors. She also curates The Bookshop Bookclub.